Milan 2-0 Venezia: Gonçalo Ramos Breaks the Deadlock as Milan Grind Out a Scrappy Win

The Result

AC Milan 2, Venezia 0. Three points. Job done. That is the version of events the Milan board will file away and move on from. But if you actually watched this match, you know it was messier than that scoreline suggests. Milan created eight big chances and converted one of them. One. Venezia helped them over the line with an own goal in the 89th minute. That is not a performance. That is a result. There is a difference. End of.

How It Unfolded

The first half was tight and niggly. Venezia were disciplined in their shape and committed enough in their challenges. Joël Schingtienne picked up a yellow card for a foul in the 27th minute and Redouane Halhal was withdrawn at half-time, replaced by Bartol Franjic. Three yellow cards for Venezia in total across the match. That tells you how hard they had to work just to stay in it.

Milan had the ball. Fifty-eight per cent possession. Five hundred and eight passes to Venezia's 363. They were dominant in terms of territory. But the basics of finishing were nowhere near good enough. Sixteen shots. Seven big chances missed. That is not a finishing problem. That is an attitude problem. When you get into positions that often and you cannot put the ball in the net, something is wrong with your standards in front of goal.

The Goals

Milan's breakthrough came in the 69th minute. Alexis Saelemaekers, who had come on as a substitute at the hour mark, provided the assist and Gonçalo Ramos finished with his left foot. Credit where it is due. Ramos made the run, picked his spot, and delivered. That is what strikers are supposed to do.

The second goal came in the 89th minute. Redouane Halhal, the same Venezia player who had been substituted off at half-time, turned up in the records again. He put the ball into his own net. It was the kind of moment that kills any lingering drama stone dead. Milan 2, Venezia 0. Game over.

Milan's Clinical Problem

The thing is, this should have been put to bed long before the 89th minute. Milan hit the woodwork once. They had 14 shots before that final goal went in. Their goalkeeper only made two saves all match. Venezia were not creating meaningful pressure. So why was it still 0-0 going into the last twenty minutes? That question does not have a comfortable answer for Milan's attacking players.

Listen, I am not going to sit here and celebrate a 2-0 win when you created eight big chances and wasted seven of them. The opposition had one big chance all match and missed it too. Both sides were guilty of being wasteful. But Milan are supposed to be the better team here. Standards matter. Accountability matters. Seven big chances missed against Venezia is unacceptable. It just is.

Venezia's Effort Without Reward

To their credit, Venezia competed. They won 53 duels to Milan's 51. They made 24 tackles. They kept plugging away and created one big chance of their own. Their goalkeeper made four saves to keep it respectable for as long as possible. Venezia came into this match with just one Serie A result in their recent sample, a 0-2 defeat to Lecce, so the evidence base on them is thin. But they showed enough here to suggest they will make sides work for their points. Whether that is enough to stay up is a different conversation.

Three yellow cards for Venezia told the story of a side operating at the edge of what they could sustain. They fouled eleven times. They were stretched by Milan's volume of possession and eventually cracked. But they cracked in the 69th minute, not the 20th. Milan should have broken them earlier. That is the honest assessment.

The Substitutions

Milan's manager made his key moves at the hour mark. Adrien Rabiot came on for Alphadjo Cissè and Saelemaekers replaced Ruben Loftus-Cheek. Luka Modrić was replaced by Ardon Jashari at 74 minutes. Those are significant names coming off. The goal came within nine minutes of Saelemaekers entering the pitch. So the changes worked in terms of outcome. But the fact that Milan needed changes to unlock a Venezia side that had been reduced to defending for long stretches tells you something about the quality of the performance before that.

Venezia made five changes of their own across the match, cycling through their options without ever really threatening to change the game. Simon Sohm, Thierry Correia, Lion Lauberbach, Albion Rrahmani all came on in the second half. None of them made a decisive contribution.

Milan's Recent Form

It is worth noting where Milan come into this. In their five completed Serie A matches before this fixture, they had won two, drawn none, and lost three. Nine goals conceded in those five matches. A clean sheet percentage of zero. So keeping a clean sheet here, however unspectacular the performance, is at least something. Milan's goalkeeper did not have a busy evening. Two saves. Five goal kicks. Venezia barely threatened the Milan goal after the first whistle and that is a positive Milan can take.

Whether the attack can be trusted to perform with more conviction against better opposition is a different matter entirely. The desire was there in patches. The execution was not good enough often enough. That is the honest summary of Milan's evening.

The Verdict

Milan win. Three points secured. The signal on Under 2.5 goals landed, the match finished 2-0, and anyone who backed that selection at 2.28 with Matchbook will be reasonably satisfied. The Venezia win signal at 7.6 lost, and that was always going to need something extraordinary to come in.

The thing is, Milan have the quality to be better than this. Modrić, Rabiot, Saelemaekers, Ramos. These are not journeymen. Seven big chances missed is not a squad problem. It is a focus problem. Get the basics right, take your chances when they come, and this becomes a comfortable afternoon rather than a nervy wait for an own goal in the 89th minute. Milan got the points. Now they need to get the standards. Because the teams above them will not be as forgiving as Venezia were tonight.